Cmaj7 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Cmaj7 — drop 3 voicings
Cmaj7 is C, E, G and B — C with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
Cmaj7 notes and formula
| C | E | G | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written CM7, CΔ7, CΔ, Cma7 or C major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cmaj7
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Cmaj7 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, E in the bass, G in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x32000 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x32000 | open position | C, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| x3241x | 1st fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| x35453 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | all fretted |
| xxx557 | 5th fret | C, root position | B | all fretted |
| xx5557 | 5th fret | G, 2nd inversion | B | barred |
| 8-10-9-9-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-12-12-12 | 10th fret | C, root position | E | barred |
| x-15-14-12-12-12 | 12th fret | C, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 13 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Cmaj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D), the #11 (F#) and the 13 (A).
How to use Cmaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cmaj7 is Dm7 to G7 — the ii and the V of C — and G7 shares its third and seventh with Dm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Cmaj7 belongs to C major (the I, the tonic), E minor (the ♭VI), G major (the IV, the subdominant) and A minor (the ♭III).
What to play over Cmaj7
Every note of Cmaj7 is in C major and C lydian.
Chords near Cmaj7
Change one note of Cmaj7 and you have C (drop the major seventh), Cmaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Cmaj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), Cmaj9 (add the ninth), CmMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or Cadd9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
Cmaj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Cmaj7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.